It took three weeks but if finally feels like football weather and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Kirksville High School Tigers have their first home game of the season tonight as they face the Moberly Spartans at 7:00 p.m. at Spainhower Field. This will be a special night as it will be Senior Night. It’s a little unusual to have Senior Night at the first home game instead of the last but that combined with the outstanding work that has been done to the entryway of the stadium is going to make this a very special night to remember. After all the pomp and circumstance we get down to the game itself which features Moberly’s high scoring offense against a Tigers team that struggled offensively and defensively last week at Chillicothe but looked pretty impressive the week before at Southern Boone. I would strongly encourage everyone to get out to Spainhower Field tonight as you don’t have many chances to see the Tigers at home this year and you couldn’t ask for a better night for football.

The Truman State Bulldogs make the long drive to Michigan to play Grand Valley State tomorrow night. Grand Valley State is one of the better teams in Division II football and this will be a stern test for a Bulldogs defense that was pushed to the limit last week in the season opener against Southwest Baptist. As noted here on Monday the offense looked very impressive in the first game and this will be a good test for them. I expect a very high scoring game between two excellent offenses.

The Missouri Tigers have the weekend off as they prepare to hit the road next week to play Indiana. I didn’t think Missouri played all that well last week and were lucky to come out of that game with a victory. Hopefully they can put this off week to goo use because after next week’s game with Indiana they begin a brutal stretch of games against some of the best teams the SEC has to offer.

In a game that I am really looking forward to seeing the Kansas City Chiefs entertain the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. The Chiefs looked great last Sunday in Jacksonville but Dallas will be a much better test for them. The Cowboys defense is not particularly good in my opinion and the Chiefs should be able to move the ball against them very well. The real test will come on defense as the Chiefs defense will be up against a much better offense than they were last week. Tony Romo has sore ribs so if he is unable to be effective then the Chiefs job will be much easier. I can see this game going either way but if the Chiefs defense can hold up like they did last week then the Chiefs could very easily go 2 and 0 for the first time in a long time.

The St. Louis Rams are not likely to have an easy time of it this weekend either as they travel to Atlanta to play the Falcons. I haven’t gotten a sense yet of where exactly the Rams are in the improvement department. Their offense looked good last week but their defense didn’t look so good. They will have to play much better this weekend for the rams to have any hope of winning.

The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates are once again tied for the lead in the National League Central after the Cardinals loss to the Milwaukee Brewers last night. The Cardinals begin a three game series at home tonight against the Seattle Mariners, (have I mentioned how much I hate this new interleague schedule) while the Pirates are at home entertaining the lifeless Chicago Cubs. I really think that the Cardinals and Pirates are going to continue tossing the NL Central lead back and forth for the rest of this month and I don’t see any team taking any sort of sizable lead as we go into the final two weeks of the season. I have no clue which team will actually have the lead when the season wraps up on September 29.

The Kansas City Royals are pretty much where they have been for what seems like the whole season. They are still hanging on to very slim playoff hopes but it isn’t going to be easy. Unfortunately their destiny is out of their hands at this point. It’s up to one of the other teams in front of them to collapse and if that doesn’t happen then there is nothing the Royals can do to change their situation.

NASCAR is in Joliet, IL this weekend as the Chase For The Cup begins on Sunday with the Geico 400. This particular chase has already been filled with its share of controversy and that is probably going to stay with them for the remaining ten races. If there is a convoluted way of doing something leave it to NASCAR to find it and utilize it to the max. You need a math degree to figure out their points system and even then you would most likely struggle with it.

We’ll be back on Monday with a look back at all this weekend’s sports action and a look ahead to another busy week of sports next week. Thanks as always for checking out this and all the other blogs on the site.
Have a terrific weekend!